Imagine That

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay in the post. I was supposed to post the past couple weeks and well, life happened and I just kind of forgot about it (oops). But anyhoo, I did remember to post this week at the 11th hour. I'm actually lying in bed typing from my phone. I had drill this weekend so I'm exhausted and a little bit anxious for the week to come, so I can't promise an award winning blog post this week lol.

As fore mentioned, I had drill this weekend. Drill weekends are always a little bit sucky because you really don't get a break. You go straight from work, well, to work. The pile of laundry you wanted to do over the weekend will be sitting there until the next, the bills and miscellaneous paperwork you wanted to do will still be sitting their until the next and you'll still be eating the same granola bars for breakfast because you didn't have time to meal prep. On the other hand, drill weekends can also be very relaxing to me. Because I'm busy working Saturday and Sunday, I feel no pressure whatsoever to go out Saturday night which gives me a lot of "me" time to just be lazy and hang with myself which is exactly what I did this Saturday evening.

I got home from drill, ordered some Jimmy John's and decided to troll Netflix to see if I could find anything that perked my interest. I stumbled across the movie "Finding Neverland," and aside from it getting 4.5/5 stars, I had always heard that it was good so I decided to watch it. The movie gave me the feels for a couple of reasons: 1) Kate Winslett (the mom of 4 boys) gets sick in the movie 2) The movie made me reflect on a train of thoughts pertaining to childhood joy and innocence. For those of you that have never seen it, Johnny Depp is a play writer with a vivid imagination. He randomly meets Kate Winslett and her boys in the park and becomes super close with them. He teaches them how to play, capture their imagination and enjoy the perks and simplicities of being a child.

For me, the concept of "Neverland" always makes me a little bit happy and sad. It makes me happy because I do think that to some extent all of us have that little piece in us that allows us to be silly and childish even at the age of 40 years old. I think that that's very beautiful; no matter how old we are we have the ability to be joyful and silly. It makes me sad on the other hand because I think that a lot of us repress that piece of silliness and forget how to use it. We are so bold, beautiful, creative and daring as children and then as adults we lose that piece of ourselves along the way.We become so caught up in out adult lives, paying bills, excelling at our jobs, staying fit, providing for our families, and all of the other responsibilities pertaining to adulthood, that we often times forget to sit back and enjoy the little things in life. We forget how to play.

It also made me think of kids growing up today and how so little use of their imagination is actually required for them to be entertained today. With video games, iPads, cellphones and all of that other technology, it's like the devices and games are doing the imagining for them. They don't have to imagine a pirate ship swarmed by sharks, they can simply press a power button and have it recreated for them. Kids today perhaps are losing that feeling of Neverland or perhaps never even finding it because they simply can press the power button and have everything on a big screen right in front of them. There are no blanket forts, there are no hot lava swamps and there are no good old fashioned games of cops and robbers; instead, there are vivid images of machine guns, battles, and race car races placed at their fingertips without any effort.

To be honest, I think the idea of Neverland is awesome. I like the idea of staying young forever. You can't stay young forever physically or mentally, but you can definitely stay young forever in spirit. Don't get too caught up in adulthood that you forget how to play, imagine, create, and have fun. Be a child when its necessary. Go to your Neverland. Sometimes when I'm running, I like to imagine that I'm running in a forest of happiness, I'm unstoppable and no one can touch me. Sometimes I like to pretend that I'm from Britain and I talk with a British accent (even in front of my students). Sometimes, I like to make my roommate do outrageous things with no purpose like catch a cat toy in slow motion. Sometimes, I like to imagine I'm jumping on the clouds when I'm riding in an airplane. Those little pieces are examples of my Neverland. I hope you never lose your Neverland, better yet, I hope you actually find it.